ICC World Twenty20: what happens next
While England fans will be delighted that their team is through to the next round and the Aussies are not, the ICC must surely have realised that their decision to seed teams according to the results of the last World T20, instead of the ODI world rankings, was the wrong one.
The first-round group structure that meant that either Ireland or Bangladesh would definitely progress to the Super Eights, while one of Sri Lanka, West Indies or Australia would not do so.
So, by virtue of a single victory against Bangladesh, Ireland are in the Super Eights and Australia are not. Thankfully for English and Pakistani fans, the Netherlands isn’t through either!
The Super Eights are split into two groups of four and a round robin is played between the members of each group.
Points are not carried through from the opening round and so winning two of each team’s three group matches will ensure that side a semi-final place. It is possible to achieve a semi final place with only one Super Eight victory, but we will leave that up to the mathematicians after the weekend.
The semi finals will be contested between the winner of group E and the second placed team from group F, and vice-versa.
Group E: India (A1), England (B2), West Indies (C1) and South Africa (D2).
Group E is no doubt tougher than group F. It consists of the team that clobbered Australia last week (West Indies), the tournament hosts and the two tournament favourites, South Africa and India.
The Indian side has the advantage of being fresh from all that IPL T20 match experience and South Africa have looked the team to beat so far. They have lost Sehwag to injury but his form has been below par of late and Rohit Sharma is a more than adequate replacement. India’s endless spin options bolster their armoury considerably.
Today’s match between England and South Africa will set the tone for this group; you get the feeling England need to win it if they are going to progress to the semis. England came back hard to thrash Pakistan after their embarrassing opening game loss to the Netherlands.
South Africa have looked the finished article so far and for the first time ever they boast three capable spin options. Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell look hot with the new ball, they are best fielding side in the game and they bat to number ten. They should win this tournament if they don’t cho cho cho… choke!
It is almost certain that we won’t know who goes through to the semis until the last group E match on the 16 June at Trent Bridge, between South Africa and India. If these two sides don’t win both of their previous two Super Eight matches, then it looks highly likely that this match will be a virtual quarter final.
Group F: Ireland (A2), Pakistan (B1), Sri Lanka (C2) and New Zealand (D1).
Ireland did well to beat a helter-skelter Bangladesh at Trent Bridge but can this bunch of amateur players really win a Super Eight game? They looked out of their depth batting against India on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s captain Younus Khan played down his side’s dismal performance against England at the Oval when he said that T20 was just a bit of fun. Pakistan bounced back well to trounce the Dutch at Lord’s but they look weirdly green. Write them off at your peril though – Pakistan have the goods and Shahid Afridi is a match winner par excellence with the ball in this format.
Sri Lanka won their two group matches convincingly and the shrewd Kumar Sangakarra seems to have taken very well to the captaincy. It’s easy to look good at bowling changes when you have the awkward Lasith Malinga and spin wizards Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis as options. Sri Lanka are maybe too heavily reliant on their top four batsmen but I would be very surprised if they didn’t make the semis.
New Zealand are a fine limited overs side. McCullum and Taylor have the goods with the bat and Vettori is a master captain and spin bowler. But they are plagued by a list of injuries that is so long that they will struggle to find 11 fit players in their squad.
SUPER EIGHT STAGE
Thursday 11 June: New Zealand v Ireland, Trent Bridge (1330)
Thursday 11 June: England v South Africa, Trent Bridge (1730)
Friday 12 June: Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Lord’s (1330)
Friday 12 June: India v West Indies, Lord’s (1730)
Saturday 13 June: West Indies v South Africa, The Oval (1330)
Saturday 13 June: New Zealand v Pakistan, The Oval (1730)
Sunday 14 June: Ireland v Sri Lanka, Lord’s (1330)
Sunday 14 June: India v England, Lord’s (1730)
Monday 15 June: Pakistan v Ireland, The Oval (1330)
Monday 15 June: England v West Indies, The Oval (1730)
Tuesday 16 June: New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Trent Bridge (1330)
Tuesday 16 June: South Africa v India, Trent Bridge (1730)
KNOCK-OUT STAGE
Thursday 18 June: First semi-final, Trent Bridge (1730)
Friday 19 June: Second semi-final, The Oval (1730)
Sunday 21 June: Final, Lord’s (1500)
